The Second Coming
by stracks
Summary: "Whatever you do, you will always end up here. Whatever choices you make, whatever details you alter, we will always end up—here." This conversation had always been in the back of Dean's mind, haunting his dreams, but now it's becoming his reality. Dean realizes the road they are on: the road to The End. [Picks right up where Sacrifice, the season 8 finale, left off.]
1. Turning and Turning (Introduction)

Dean Winchester was a hunter. He was more than that, of course; Dean was a lover, a drinker, a fighter, but if he ever needed a business card, it would have said:

**Dean Winchester**

**Professional Murderer**

...or something to that effect. The point is that Dean would consider his profession to be his identity.

Sam would disagree. Dean was not a hunter. He _hunted_, but he was not, at the core, a _hunter_. In the eyes of Sam, and in the eyes of everyone else in the Winchesters' makeshift family, Dean Winchester was a caretaker.

All those nights when John never came home, Dean made dinner. Hell, most of those nights when John _was _at home, Dean made dinner. Sam was Dean's responsibility, growing up. Now, Sam was still Dean's responsibility.

Along with Cas, and Kevin. Charlie, too. And Benny, Bobby, Jo, Ellen, and even John, when they were still alive. But Dean's family has been dwindling since he was four years old, so at the moment it's just Cas, Kevin, and Sam under Dean's wings.

Even so, Dean needed a wider wingspan.

In that moment, as he leaned against the Impala with his brother crumpled with pain beside him, Dean watched the skies explode with points of light torpedoing earthward. _Cas._

"The angels. They're falling."

Dean Winchester, ever the caretaker, had his work cut out for him.


	2. The Falcon Cannot Hear The Falconer

**Two Days Later**

Dean wished the sudden ringing of the cell phone had awoken him, but it seemed the events of the past few days, Sam's compromised state, storing a quasi-King-of-Hell in the dungeon of the Batcave, and the disappearance of Heaven's most wayward angel were preventing Dean from getting more than two hours of sleep at a time. "What the hell, Cas?"

"Hello, Dean."

Dean pulled the phone from his hear to check the display. 12:52 AM. Dean was clearly exasperated. "Listen, man, I have no idea what's going on with heaven but you know I'm not the praying type, so when I pray to you, you know I mean business."

"I'm aware of that, Dean."

Dean didn't respond, expecting an explanation. The silence that followed seemed to indicate that he wouldn't get one without prompting. "_And, _I've prayed to you eight times in two days. You just disappeared, man. _Again_. So, let me repeat, then: what the _hell_, Cas?"

"My cell phone battery was dead. I had to find a way to charge it."

Dean sighed, rolling his eyes. "Cas, we _prayed _to you. _Your _batteries aren't dead, so I don't know why the hell you're choosing to ignore-"

"Dean, Metatron took my grace," Cas blurted.

Dean said nothing.

"I'm not an angel anymore. I'm as human as you are."

Not really sure what to say, Dean decided on: "Uh, you okay?"

"It's a very strange transition."

"That's not what I asked."

After a pause, Cas replied. "I think I'm fine, yes. I wasn't much of an angel to begin with." Cas tried to chuckle, tried to invoke some sort of humor into the situation. It wasn't very effective, as Cas ended up sounding like someone had jabbed him sharply in the stomach with a pencil.

Dean rolled out of bed and turned on the lights in his bedroom. "Listen man, where are you? I'll come pick you up," he said, picking a pair of jeans up off the floor of his closet.

"I'm in a Burger King restaurant in a gas station outside of Kansas City, Missouri."

"Okay, text me the address and stay put. Be there in a few hours."

"Dean," Cas said earnestly. "Thank you."

Dean shoved both feet into his boots simultaneously. "It's what I'm here for, Cas."

Dean pulled up to the gas station and found Castiel sitting idly on the curb of the sidewalk. After Cas had wordlessly climbed into the passenger seat, Dean drove off, headed back the way he came, back home to the Batcave. "They kick you out of the Burger King?"

"Yes... they said I had to buy something, but I didn't have any money. I'd spent it all on this cell phone charger."

"What happened to your old charger?"

"I don't know... I never used it. When I had my grace I had the ability to keep it charged with my own energy."

"Sounds to me like you're going to have to learn to walk, now that you've got your wings clipped."

"I've done this before, Dean." He'd had, briefly, back in the golden days when the Apocalypse was imminent and Lucifer roamed the earth.

"Yeah, but this time seems pretty permanent, if you ask me."

Cas had no response to that. Silence rode with them in the Impala, like a passenger in the back seat, for the four-hour drive back to the Batcave. Cas slept, and Dean noted that the last time he saw Cas sleep was the day before Sammy threw himself into the Cage. Years had passed, but little had changed. Team Free Will still consisted of a broken angel, a kid who must sacrifice himself for the sake of humanity, and a big brother who has no idea what to do except patch his family up on a regular basis.

The roads became more familiar and Dean began navigating the route leading to the hidden location of the bunker. Cas eventually woke up, and Dean broke the silence.

"So what the hell happened, man?"

Castiel sighed. "Naomi was right."

"Well, yeah, _obviously_," Dean scoffed. "But what _happened_?"

"They weren't trials. It was a spell. Metatron needed my grace to finish it, so he took it by force."

"And evicted every single angel from heaven."

"Yes."

"What happened to the angels?"

"I can't be sure. Metatron banished me to earth, but he _ejected _the rest of the angels. They still have their grace, but I can't imagine they'll be unscathed. Not only did they crash to earth at terminal velocity, but the gates to heaven are closed."

Dean glanced at Cas, concern knitted into his eyebrows. "Wait, when angels are separated from heaven, doesn't that end up depleting their mojo?"

Cas stared ahead, countenance devoid of feeling. "Yes. Generally."

"So... there are no more angels. Or there won't be once all the angel juice runs down."

"No. Metatron is still an angel."

"Yeah, but he's locked up in heaven. Lucifer's still an angel, too, but he's trapped in the cage."

"Lucifer is trapped. There is no escape for him. Metatron can come out of heaven whenever he wants."

"Why the hell would he do that?"

"There's no telling, but we can't simply rule out the possibility."

Dean yawned. God, he needed sleep. "If Metatron comes out and reopens heaven, will all the other angels get their mojo back?"

"Most likely, yes."

The Impala slowed to a halt outside the bunker door. "And that would be a good thing, I'm assuming?" Dean asked cautiously as he turned the car off and the Impala's steady purring died, killing the ambient noise that had shadowed the conversation. The angels were a bunch of dicks in Dean's eyes, but to Cas, they were family.

Cas inhaled, releasing his breath slowly in a gradual sigh. It sounded so _human_, Dean thought. It was alien. Human Cas was gonna take some getting used to. "I'm... not sure," Cas replied. He was still staring ahead out the windshield, intensely focused on nothing in particular. "I'm not fully aware of the implications of grounding all the angels. Humanity may ultimately benefit from a lack of celestial presence. There's no way to tell at this point."

Dean scoffed. "Cas, dude, I'm talking about _you_. I'm asking what _you _want, not what's best for humanity. Yeah, you're flightless now, but at heart, you're an angel. And the way it seems, the only way for you to get your angel juice back is to unleash Metatron and juice up the other angels too. So sooner or later, you're going to have to either choose to be angel or to be human."

Castiel allowed a few seconds of silence before speaking. "I... I don't have an answer to that currently."

Smiling to himself, Dean said, "Yeah, we don't expect you to right now, Cas. Sam's still recovering- I don't know when, or even _if_, he'll be back in the game. Plus, we've got the King of Hell living in our basement, and I don't know what the hell we're supposed to do with Kev. Kid's technically a minor and an orphan and he's living in our underground lair. Not sure how he's supposed to explain _that_ on a scholarship application."

"Dean, if I stay here, I'd just be a further imposition on you and Sam. I could easily find someplace else to stay-"

"Shut up, Cas," Dean interrupted, opening the car door and climbing out, Cas following suit. "Human or not, you're family. There's room for you here."

Cas glanced at Dean with a grateful expression. Words were trifles, impertinent and extraneous.

"But don't you dare touch the thermostat. You're human now, Cas. You're a lot easier to kill."


End file.
